EC Review: Lhasa Pow 186 and B-Squad 189

[bennettc14]

Me- 5'9 170 21yr, aggressive exracer etc...First review so cut me some slack
Boots- Rossi B-Squad Carbons with eliminators 130 flex
Locations- Sugarbush, Jay, Magic, Gore, Okemo, and JHMR (during that immersion nonsense)
Skis I like- 08 LPs and Budda Explosivs
Skis I don't like- Sugar Daddys or any Atomics


Lhasa Pow 186cm Glass mounted on line with 4frnt/Vist 816s

The Lhasas were my first pair of Bros and rockered skis I've ever owned or ridden. I felt there was almost no adjustment time needed as long as I remembered to stay forward due to the rocker. I was a little skeptical at first about having these as a one-ski quiver here on the Ice Coast but not anymore. They are the best skis I've used in the trees, length was perfect there A+. You can use the pintails and make any turn shape you'd like, super quick. Tips stay up out of the snow once you start to get any speed and you can do all this staying forward and not having to worry about burying the nose under a downed log or something. In crud the bulletnose tip breaks through and tracks great. The Lhasa are super fast and fun on-piste. On soft groomers they just rip, liked them just as much as LPs, very stable and capable of nice long turns. On steep bulletproof the skis can get a little sketchy (Really only saw this at Jackson when I was there for a few days). If you keep your weight forward on the tips you can arc anyturn and the edge will hold just fine. If you want to slow it down a little bit and make linked short turns, no problem. The Lhasas will make any turn shape you want. I was really surprised by their ability in soft moguls especially off Castlerock. As long as you don't mind the width and knocking of the skis you can zipper bumps without too much problems using the tails to skid out your short turns. As expected and already said in other reviews their powder performance is spectacular. The rocker is a real leg saver not having to be in the backseat the whole time to keep the tips up. Very confident on small drops knowing you won't bury the tips and go over the handlebars. All and all the Bros exceeded my expectations on everything, this can be a quiver of one out East. They make life easy. The only thing I would like to change would be their stiffness but I understand the carbon model is a little stiffer. It would be good to see a length in between 196 and 186. Sometimes I wished they were a little longer for just hauling ass and more effective edge, a 190-192 might be perfect. The 196 I'm sure is awesome but a little impractical on the EC. Thanks again to PMGear and Pat, if I ever get a job in this economy after graduation you will get more of my business asap.

OG Rossignol B-Squad 189 mounted on the line with PX12s

A lot has been said about these skis but little about their utility out here. Bought these from a mag to use on days when I didn't want to tear up the Bros on rocks and for some post-pow cruising. Very nervous at first about getting on them for the first time. Once on them I found that they were not too much to handle even coming off the Bros. On soft groomers, tracked out, and crud these things haul and are very fun. If you stay forward and pressure the tips you can do just fine and even make shorter turns in softer stuff. You can use the large radius to cruise long turns or wash out the tails to shorten them up. Soft moguls are even doable but far harder than the Lhasas as expected. In tight trees the skis are just plain scary and tiring. If the snow is dense the skis basically lock in the turn and you feel like you're going to clip a tree. In soft spaced out trees the B-squads are fine but not ideal as they want to be going straight and fast. Icy moguls are death on the B-Squads and should be avoided like the plague. On bulletproof icy groomers they also really sketched me out because they just want to go straight and feel like you have no control over your speed with no bite on true ice. The B-Squads weren't bad on Hobacks junk were I had a lot of room to work with. Needless to say the Squads are a ton of work to ski, much more so than 186 LPs. I feel that I can barely flex them at my weight, the 194s must be madness. They are fine in boot deep pow but over that they are just bottomfeeders. I'm sure they are a great comp skis but lets face it this is VT. The new Phantom 108s replaced them and are supposed to be a little softer and easier, would be interesting ski to try out. The S-Quads are a good ski to have in your quiver for just running stuff over and hauling ass in the wide open. All said I might let them go in favor of some XXLs that are a little easier to ski with more float.

[jondrums]

thanks for the lhasa review. I've noted a lot of people posting that they wished for a 190/192 lhasa. Why wouldn't you just get the 196? I kind of like the simplicity of having just two sizes. People who like skis a little shorter should get 186, people who like longer skis should get 196. done.

[bennettc14]

I agree with simplicity cause this isn't a perfect world but a full 196 is a little lengthy out East. A few more centimeters of effective edge to the 186 would be ideal for me personally but I'm also not the company producing the skis. The 186 is more than perfect as an everyday ski, the 196 would be cool for big day and trips out West but would get less action out here on a daily basis. However, owning a 186 and 190 Lhasa would prob be pointless for me. Lack of Bro demos out here makes it harder to tell and I could be completely wrong about the 196 bigger way too big.

[splat]

We're getting hammered with requests for the 192, as well as a shorter version.
I can totally relate to the 192 request because there were times I felt like I was def topping out the 186 length and could have used a tad more length. And each size will have it's own attributes. It's too fun to not want in every size. That's what was so fun abut testing them last season. We did them in every possible rocker and camber shape in every different flex and they all rocked, but were different. It'd be the same with sizes.

Knocking out these additional sizes might not be too hard, as we hope to do some significant makeovers in the factory and the skis this summer to reflect some character-enhancing qualities we like across the Bro line. We're fine tuning to perfection the already highly functional shapes we have. We want to make a ski anyone from a world tour competitor to a weekend tele freerider can pick up and love.

[bennettc14]

^ If you build it we will buy.

[BHawkeye]

I know I'm flogging a dead horse here but I wholeheartedly agree with your review bennett. I've been on my Lhasa 186s (carbons) about 5 or 6 times in widely variable conditions. From boiler plate about two weeks ago here in Colorado, to several inches of fresh on crud (yesterday at Vail), to some knee deep slackcountry. They truly are a one ski quiver. I will echo what everyone keeps saying about these skis...they love to rail and bust through anything. They get all these looks in the lift line which is awesome. Some girl today told me "Your skis look SO pretty!"...I told her that was why I bought them...wink, wink.

I've thought about the length issue too and whether or not I could step it up to the 196 (I'm 5'9" and 165 lbs). For tree skiing and moguls here in Colorado (which often happens when we get a week or two of little to no snow) the 186 is perfect and the 196 would be too much ski for me. While it would be great to have a 190-192, I'm not sure it's totally feasible. In a perfect world, of course it would be nice but I think the 186 and 196 cover most of the bases. Let's see what Pat comes up with for next year b/c it sounds like they have some good stuff comin'.